Alabama Republicans defied multiple court orders to redraw their gerrymandered map to include another majority-minority district, and now the courts have appointed a special master to do what Republicans won’t.
A three-judge US District Court panel ruled:
We conclude that the 2023 Plan does not remedy the likely Section Two violation that we found and the Supreme Court affirmed. We also conclude that the Milligan Plaintiffs are substantially likely to establish that the 2023 Plan violates Section Two under the controlling Supreme Court test.
…
Based on the evidence before us, including testimony from the Legislators, we have no reason to believe that allowing the Legislature still another opportunity to draw yet another map will yield a map that includes an additional opportunity district. Moreover, counsel for the State has informed the Court that, even if the Court were to grant the Legislature yet another opportunity to draw a map, it would be practically impossible for the Legislature to reconvene and do so in advance of the 2024 election cycle. Accordingly, the Special Master and cartographer are DIRECTED to commence work forthwith on a remedial map. Instructions shall follow by separate order.
Alabama Republicans, it seems, were trying to delay and not comply with the order to stall the case through the 2024 election. Ron DeSantis has already had the courts toss his gerrymandered map out in Florida, which will result in an additional Democratic district being restored. Democrats are also expected to have another district restored in North Carolina, and they could regain one House seat and several seats in the state legislature in Georgia if a court rules that Republicans gerrymandered the map to weaken the power of black voters.
Democrats could end up regaining the House majority without flipping a single seat in 2024, which is why all of the rulings restoring one minority district in red states matter.
Alabama Republicans got smacked down by the courts who aren’t playing their games and have become the line of defense for protecting voting rights.
